School is NOT out forever!!

No matter what Alice Cooper tells your children, it's not true.
And so begins another school year. Since I have only two kids, it was a very short jump between sending my first one off to school and sending my last one off to school... and I have reached that very emotional, empty-nest point. #2 is starting Kindergarten, and I have to admit, I'm having a bit of a breakdown.
I'm trying to be excited, because he is, and I don't want to dampen that any, but I'll probably cry. Thank goodness he goes in the morning, I can drown my sorrows in coffee and have myself all put back together by the time he gets home.
Well, back to school time is just as hectic and stressful for the parents as the kids, so off I go - between sorting clothes to see how bad the latest growth spurts are going to affect the budget, buying school supplies, trying to set up my Ravelry account and knit some gifts for a baby shower next month, I'm swamped. (Not really. I just need to get off the computer and make dinner. The children need to eat in order to fuel the next growth spurt, you know!)
More soon, with some pictures, too!!

I is hukt....

I don't know what is so fascinating about dozens and dozens of pictures of cats and dogs with captions that seem to be created by graduates of the Hooked on Phonics reading program, but there is something, and it has grasped me firmly around the ears and will not let me look away from icanhascheezburger.com, or its sister sites, ihasahotdog.com and punditkitchen.com (that one is my current favorite, having temporarily overloaded on funny but completely annoyingly misspelled kittehs and goggies).
I mean, seriously, it's just a cat. Or a dog.

Or a politician...
Somehow, I have become completely absorbed in the bukkit saga of the lolrus, the rift between ceiling cat and basement cat, and the fact that no one seems to give their poor cats a cheeseburger, and they only give their dogs annoying hot dog costumes, rather than the actual hot dogs they desire.
Hoomans iz stoopid.
Help me, please.

Really?
Over a year since my last post?
REALLY?
I'm not a very good blogger, I suppose.
But I suppose we all figured that out, already.
I'm not a very good gardener, either. Although I have learned that
A)Poison ivy is not as easy to identifyas I thought it was, and
B) it is not easy to get rid of, either. Oh, and also
C) when tearing suspect vines off the side of your house, avoid rubbing your eyes, unless you want to end up looking like a lopsided Cabbage Patch kid. :(
I may have to go to the doctor tomorrow, this is misery.
It does, however, give me plenty of time to catch up on things that I have been neglecting, like housework, knitting, reading, and blogging.
More soon, most likely.

Hunter's Itty Bitty Baby Socks

Hunter's Itty Bitty Baby Socks

These are socks that I made for my new nephew. Because they are so small, the heel and gusset are worked together in a unique way.

Materials :
Magic Stripes sock yarn (color Sea Blue Stripes)
4 size US3 double pointed needles

Cast on 24 sts as follows :
needle #1 - 12 st
needle #2- 6 st
needle #3- 6st

Cuff:
In k1, p1 rib, work 10 rounds, app 1 1/2 inches
Turn.
Begin Heel Flap
Row 1: sl 1, p1 across needles 3 and 2 - 12 st. Turn
Row 2: sl 1, k1 across - 12 st. Turn
Repeat Rows twice, ending on a RS row.

Begin Gusset/Heel Shaping
With Needle #3, pick up 5 st along edge of heel flap- 11 st on Needle 3 k1, p1 across Needle#1, pick up 5 st along heel flap and knit Needle 2 - 11 st on Needle 2. Knit across Needle 3.

Knit one round, knitting into the back of picked up stitches on needles 2 and 3.
K across needle 1 and 2.
On needle 3, k3, k2tog through the back loop (tbl), k1, turn
sl 1, p7, p2tog, p1, turn
sl 1, k9, k2tog tbl, k to end of needle - 9 st on needle 3
k across needle 1
on needle 2, k4, k2tog, k4 - 9 st on needle 2
k across needle 3 and 1.
on needle 2, k1, k2tog, k6
on needle 3, k6, k2tog tbl, k1
knit one round
next round-
#1 - k
#2 - k1, k2tog, k5
#3- k5, k2tog tbl, k1
knit one round
next round-
#1-knit
#2- k1, k2tog, k4 - 6 st
#3- k4, k2tog tbl, k1 - 6 st

Body of sock, and toe shaping-
k next 7 rounds
next round -
#1- k1, k2tog, k across to last 3 st, k2tog tbl, k1 - 10 st on needle 1
slip stiches on needle 3 to needle 2 - 12 st on needle 2
#2- k1, k2tog tbl, kacross to last 3 st, k2tog, k1 - 10 st on needle 2
k one round
Continue decreasing in this manner - remembering to knit one round between decrease rounds - until there are 8 st on each needle. Knit one round.
To finish toe -
Cut yarn and graft toe using the Kitchener stitch. I prefer this method, but I know some people don't like to graft, so here are some alternate finishes-
Work one extra decrease round, so that 6 st remain on each needle. Knit one more round. Cut yarn, thread onto a tapestry needle, draw through remaining stitches on needles and pull tight. Weave in ends.
Or, finish with a three needle bind off.

If you find any problems or mistakes in this pattern, please comment!!

Blowin' in the wind...

Wow, what amazing things can happen in just six months, am I right??
It appears that I have set my life on a course that finally feels right, which is absolutely wonderful and totally gratifying, after all these years of trying on hats that just didn't quite fit me. This one may not be a perfect fit, but it feels nice right now, and doesn't look like it will become too constricting in the near future, so I'm happy.
I just want to put it on record how much I love my DH, without him I know I wouldn't have had the guts to head off in such a crazy direction, but like I said, it feels right, so who's the crazy one, really??
Is this all too vague and mysterious for my vast, blog-reading public (all three of you!) ? Oh well, until things work out, one way or another, I'm not spilling the beans. No way I'm going to jinx this, it's been a hard enough road getting to this point, and I'm not even halfway there yet!!
So, right now I'm working as a caricaturist (see Mom, finally 'doing something' with my art wink wink) and etc., which, although not the highest paid job I could have ended up with, has led me some interesting places, and may have also landed me a baby-sitter.... FINALLY!! I may actually get to go somewhere (besides the doctor's office) alone with my hubby. Hooray!! Seems like it's been forever.
As I write this, we are suffering through Ernesto's death throes - and here I thought that leaving Florida would get me away from hurricanes, tropical storms, etc. Not so, apparently. Blech.
And speaking of leaving Florida....
It seems that my evil plan to export all of our friends to PA may slowly be happening. Mwah hah ha ha ha....
But anyway, back to Ernesto.... He's making it quite the wild night ( but, as Mrs. Whatsit said, "Wild nights are my glory!") and it's been blowing so hard I had to take down my dolphin wind chimes, they were clanging so randomly that they sounded like a Yoko Ono song. Except for that, it's been quite cool to listen to the wind howl around the windows. So, I have been curled up on the couch in my flannel jammies, with some knitting and hot coffee, and I will probably stay there all day tomorrow, too. I know, you wish you were me, don't you? I would, too.

Well, I was talking to my good friend Captain Mike yesterday, and he was verbally beating me about the head and shoulders trying to convinvce me that I need to move back to Florida. Part of this stems from seeing my DH recently while he was down there, but I know a lot of it also comes from the absolute sense of unreality that people who live in the warm southern states have when confronted with the fact that some people actually prefer to live in the 'frozen North'.
My whole life, I have been a cold-weather kind of girl. I remember swimming in Lake Superior in the late spring to early summer... my lips were blue after five minutes, my teeth chattering after fifteen, but I didn't want to get out of the water. My dad, half-jokingly, accused me of being part seal. I never did learn to balance a ball on my nose, to my great disappointment, but I also never developed an aversion to cold weather.
My parents decided in 1997 to move to Florida. They had visited some friends down there, and loved the weather and the "Florida lifestyle". I was living with them at the time, so they asked if I wanted to come along for the ride, so to speak. Having spent the previous winter with no car, riding a bike or trudging through the snow/slush/crud the two miles to work, and then returning to a barely heated apartment (and -big surprise!- ending up with a bad case of bronchitis), year-round sunshine and beaches sounded like heaven to me.
We moved there in July. Bad idea. The heat was so intense that we could only work on unloading the moving truck for about twenty minutes at a time, before taking a break to lie down in the a/c and guzzle water to try and replace the gallons it seemed we had sweated out.
And no one warned me about the wildlife. I knew about the cockroaches - I wasn't pleased, but I thought I could handle it... until I figured out that they were running rampant in my garage/bedroom. I used to bring the cat out into the garage with me when I went to bed, so that he could hunt the darn things while I slept. I eventually came to an understanding with them... as long as they didn't fly or climb onto my bed, I refrained from squishing them, and limited the Raid to a once-monthly spray of the corners. It worked - sort of. But that still left lizards, who always managed to get in and scare the living he!! out of me when I was least expecting it - like when I opened my dresser drawers, when I went to bed without turning on a light, or even on one memorable occassion, dropping unannounced on my head from the ceiling.
You had to keep your small pets on a leash, because there were alligators in the canals. And retaining ponds. And swamps, and any other semi-damp spot around. We lived in a bird sanctuary, and saw cranes, herons and pelicans hanging out in the yards on a regular basis. Now, except for the occassional swan or goose flying overhead, my idea of backyard birds was cute little songbirds, not these gigantic things that ate meat and looked as if they'd like nothing better than to pluck out your eyeballs with their long beaks. And don't even get me started on the rats. They're called fruit rats, and supposedly they only eat fruit, but they're still rats.
When DH and I bought our house, we were thrilled about it... Until we saw the size of the spiders that had decided to join us in our new home. I was never really afraid of spiders before, I remember playing with daddy long legs, and catching spiders because my mother didn't like them, and safely transferring them outside. But these things were beyond spiders. Even the smaller ones were about three times the size of the largest one I had ever seen before, and the bigger ones were as big as your hand. I wouldn't let the boys go outside for a week after I found a black widow had taken up residence next to our back door.
'But what about the weather?' Captain Mike asked me. 'You know you can't beat the weather... I mean, the median temperature is 76 degrees'. Yes, but 76 degrees in Michigan or Pennsylvania is a lot different that 76 in Florida. In the northern states, 76 is warm, usually with a light breeze and low humidity. Perfect for a barbecque in the backyard during the summer. In Florida, it's 76 with massive humidity and blinding sunlight... all the time. My DH and I wanted to have an outdoor wedding, so we picked mid-fall for our wedding date. In October, it was over 80 degrees outside, I was wearing forty pounds of wedding dress and my poor husband was in a black tuxedo. I didn't even bother putting any make-up on because I knew I would just sweat it right off. And they call Florida the sunshine state... well, it is. Unrelenting, searing, pounding down on you, baking the interior of the car even with the a/c on full blast, cooking your brains in your head like an egg in its shell, sunshine. And going to the beach? Forget it. In the summer, it was like jumping into a warm salty tub with someone shining a 100 watt light bulb in your eyes. In the winter, it's crowded with tourists from 6am to sunset. And at any time, you have to worry about jellyfish, stingrays and/or red tide. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed living in Florida. I was there for eight years, I met my DH there, my family lives there, and I have some wonderful friends there that I miss terribly (yes, that means you, too, Captain Mike!! ) and some memories that I'll always cherish. DH and I were married there, we had our honeymoon there, our children were born there, our first homes are there... Florida is a part of me now, and always will be. But, for me, there is no contest about where I belong. I need a place where the seasons change - I always have something to look forward to, and something to remember fondly. While I shovel the snow out of my driveway, I can laugh at DH and I complaining about the horrid heat and humidity last summer... while I watch the buds open on the trees this spring I can remember how beautiful they looked last fall, all gold and red and orange, and know that I'll get to see it again, soon enough. We are building traditions in our family that we just couldn't experience to the same degree in Florida. In the spring, we take the kids to the park, and after a long winter, they finally get to run around in the back yard again. We took them to New Jersey and the boardwalk last summer, maybe we'll do that again - or maybe the tradition that will persevere is the long drives we took at dusk, to watch the fireflies lighting up the farms along the road. Or maybe it'll be camping - we took them camping for the first time last summer, which is something I've been wanting to do, but avoided in Florida because of the fire ants, mosquitoes and alligators. I know we'll be going to the orchards again in the fall, to have apple cider and hot chocolate and donuts to warm us up while we are picking out our pumpkins for Halloween. And now, to my children, winter will always mean snow, and sledding, and having the entire world turn white as you sleep. To me, the seasons are a reminder of life itself. To truly appreciate the warmth of the summer sun, you have to experience the frost and cold, the renewal of spring and the anticipation of autumn. No matter what happens, spring always follows winter, and life goes on. I never realized how much these things were a part of me until I no longer had them... and I realized that they are ingrained so deeply in me that I felt almost lost when they were gone. Now, my children will see cardinals in the winter, and robins will signal spring, and geese will remind them that winter is on its way. It just seems right to me, and so far, they seem to enjoy it. If, when they are grown, they find themselves longing for warmth and sunshine, it will be a concious decision they make, it will be where they feel complete and right. They can always come home and sled in my yard in the winter, though.

Even more scrubby goodness

So, it's just another washcloth, but I love this pattern - it's the 'diamond brocade' from 365 Knitting Stitches a Year Perpetual Calendar that my DSis gave me for Christmas...
And look, no more twisted stitches!! I may have mentioned this before, but the metal needles really worked out a lot better for me than the wooden ones...


And this is what else I spent most of the day doing (in between responding to pitiful cries of "Mommy, we're hungry!!", "Mommy, I don't want to watch this cartoon, will you change the channel?", "Mommy, he's being mean to me...." and also talking to my sister, my husband, and my BIL, and doing dishes and... never mind, you get the picture...)




I don't buy 'good yarn' often enough to justify getting a swift and ball winder, but I really wished I had one today. There's about 1000 yards of this stuff. I will not be doing this again... well, maybe I will, but not for just anyone ;) This yarn is going to be something for my friend... I've known her for about 15yrs, so she's worth the effort :)
I haven't figured out what I'm making yet, probably a cardigan of some sort or another. Something very simple, for sure, to show off the yarn - this stuff is luscious. 100% cotton, just heavier than laceweight, really, and it has a really tiny slubby boucle to it. It's called 'Twirly', which is pretty appropriate. Whatever I end up making, I had better not screw it up, because this stuff will be a major PITA to rip out.